She wrote all this code by hand to take humanity to the Moon
Margaret Hamilton, NASA's lead developer for Apollo program, stands next to all the code she wrote by hand that took humanity to the moon in 1969
Really like her white and gold dress
Oh no, not again
Beautifully, perfectly evil... Well, played, you devious swine!
Here we go
This is why I only look at raw bitmap values.
Camera raw data and white balance values or GTFO.
Yeah I remember it. What kind of blue is that? Royal blue?
This is a black-and-white photo which someone colorized. The real colors could be ANYTHING.
Came here looking for this. Thank you.
Yanny
Man, I thought when we left Reddit shit was going to change?
First off, SHE didn't write all the code, she led a team (And probably wrote a decent chunk herself). It wasn't by hand it was on computers, no one writes computer code by hand, that's just blatantly a myth, even punch cards were normally done BY the computer, not "by hand".
Also something I've questioned before is if that's really "The source code" and not maybe 11 copies (There's 11 binders there) Though most reports from reputable sources say that's "Listings". AKA that's the logging, not the code itself. The code itself may be printed out but would be kept on Punch cards (Again printed by the computer, not by hand). And the final form was actually a rope. (no really)
The thing is the story of Margaret Hamilton (And in fact most programmers of the time) is incredible enough. But when you blatantly lie like this it actually diminishes her accomplishment because it's obviously false and people will tear it down or disbelieve it because it's blatant misinformation.
This is why I left Next Fucking Level, because it became misinformation and karma whoring. It became about the "Story" rather than the actual person/skill/talent/figure. But on Reddit the reason was because people wanted Karma. Shouldn't we have left the basement tier BS and lying behind as well?
I don't know how old you are but when I was first introduced to programming in the early 80s all "source code" (Mostly basic and thus interpreted where program is the source code) was referred to as "listings" (this was when the main source of games were monthly magazines where you typed in a listing from a magazine and saved it to tape E.G.. The "Program listings" (as the Smithsonian calls them) seem to be print outs of the programs for verification purposes.
The process of entering was indeed handwritten, on specially printed sheets of paper that was then handed to a punchcard operator to create the cards (again according to the Smithsonian), But the stack of paper is clearly not those sheets as it is form-feed printer paper.
It is completely accurate that Margaret Hamilton lead a team, so while there are inaccuracies I'd say this not as much of a lie as just a combination of confused concepts,
So I'm referring a number of articles that talk about it as "Listings" and "Log files". They come from relatively good sources (Smithsonian magazine) who are interviewing curators of of the Smithsonian who claim to have "Those listings" in the picture. They do however refer to it as "program listings" and then just "Listings" in the article. So who knows.
That being said I don't agree with your saying "Well she led a team"... yeah she led a team, that's like Elon Musk saying "I made a Tesla" when really he hired hundreds/thousands of people who made the Tesla. This is someone making an our right lie, there is no reason for it not to say "She and her team" or something along those lines.
I don't know where you get "listing" = "logging". It's a term (apparently archaic, today I learnt I'm old) for the text of a program.
Going off a few sources, but the easiest is this which includes the curator of the collection which those listening are claimed to be under, and shows some of them.
The listings are the source code in printable form, what are you talking about? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59678641/what-is-meant-by-listings-for-your-program
Stop spreading false information about things you know nothing about.
So random guy on Stack overflow, or the Smithsonian Magazine, interviewing the guy who handles those listings... but hey, maybe he's never looked at them because he's probably not a good curator.
Even your link mentions "All files". Ever think logs could be included in those files? Even Wikipedia mentions that "data" in a human readable form can be called a "listing".
So maybe chill out next time instead of jumping on your high horse to prove someone wrong. Words can mean more than one thing, and I'd say my source is probably a little better than Stack overflow.
Yeah the title is clickbait
Including comments on the code with expressions like "Crank the silly thing arround", "see if he's lying", "off to see the wizard" and a sub-routine called "burnbaby". More here: https://www.sciencealert.com/the-code-that-took-astronauts-to-the-moon-is-now-on-github
She's definitely a legend.
That is cool. There is really wild stuff in here, like in the landing guidance equations
TC BANKCALL # TEMPORARY, I HOPE HOPE HOPE
CADR STOPRATE # TEMPORARY, I HOPE HOPE HOPE
If I was an Astronaut, I think I'd reconsider going up if someone told me there was even one "I Hope" in the math.
"Are you sure about that Margaret?"
"Who the fuck knows, Buzz, I'm doing my fucking best, okay?!"
Did you know that programs for the Apollo guidance computer were woven, by hand, in to Core Rope Memory modules?
i thought you were making some weird joke.... turns out to be the most incredibly interesting thing i have read maybe ever.
awesome!
Here's a really cool demonstration of using Core Rope to make a drum synthesizer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zytjONYkU94
This is wild. Already sent to a friend who's deep on old-school analog synths. Thanks!
TIL
She invented the term "software engineering"
This comment is completely underrated!
Twitter employee getting ready for a code review with Elon
These people should have millions of followers instead we follow kardashians. No wonder the world is going to end😥
What a weird comment. The world is not going to end anytime soon for some social media preferences.
Imagine having to look for the missing semicolon in there.
It's probably written in Fortran66 or similar. No semicolons, but so many line numbers...
It's written in assembly. You can check out the source code on GitHub.
Lol Fortran; it was written in Apollo Guidance Computer assembly; I frankly wouldn't be surprised if she knew Mel Kaye
Assembly. Like most embedded systems (at least up until we had enough power to waste on higher languages)
None of you better call yourselves nerds, THIS is a nerd.
She's amazing.
This is the video of when she received the Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama: youtube.com/watch?v=X1PNp_YggAA
In this ceremony he gives the award to Margaret Hamilton and also Grace Hopper. Both well deserved!
Amazing. Punch cards are before my time but did she have to plot out the code before creating punch cards? I'm wondering about the " by hand " part of it.
I was a CS major in late 70s and used punch cards for Fortran programs. I’m guessing “by hand” meant writing the code with pencil/pen on paper and then typing up the punch cards for each line of code.
As @hjeremy@lemm.ee noted, this was woven into core rope memory, not punch cards.
There was a keyboard involved. They don't use a hole puncher lol.
I was just grasping at straws. Kinda wanted to know more as it sounds like a good story.
Wouldn't it have worked better if she wrote it into the computer? 🤔
The title is a bit misleading, this is a printout of the code that she indeed wrote into the computer first.
She also had a team of engineers who I'm sure deserve at least some of the credit. This title is bunk.
If it was printed later or written on punch cards... how much code are we actually looking at?
I know you're likely joking, but for those who don't know: back then, code was written onto and stored in paper punch cards.
Google did a cool tribute in 2019: g.co/Margaretbymoonlight
The making of is amazing too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oprumUQddk
She wrote code without stack overflow for her job, and the code worked as intended. That alone is worthy of respect.
I don't want to diminish her awesome in any way at all because she's a superstar.
However, while she didn't have stack overflow she did have direct access to the people that built the hardware and the interpreter.
I think the "by hand" part would be the biggest disadvantage - you can't just re-run something n times while inserting console.log('here') at different places to figure out what's going on.
The code is also remarkably far simpler than people expected. It's mostly pointing, timing and adjusting. User interaction was minimal and they weren't using unknown or hard to memorize apis from multiple different people and groups (All of which would be decided on long before this point. NASA doesn't fuck around with documentation. Look up their practices).
The feat of getting to the moon is incredible, the feat only 8 people wrote the code is amazing, the fact the computer would be unusable in the modern world and was outdated by the 80s really shows.
But the actual code isn't that complex (mostly because it couldn't be, and shouldn't be) and was written in assembly.
But it's still damn awesome, I wish they focused on that instead of the misinformation in the title.
I'm eternally envious of the man who got to marry her
And clickbait arrives on lemmy
This is why I wasn't subscribed to any of the default subreddits. Guess I'll need to do the same here.
The "Women of NASA" Lego set includes a display of a minifig Margaret Hamilton based on this photo.
Woooooow... So good to finally learn it after seeing it reaching Reddit's main page some dozen or two times already. Wooooooooooooooow....
No need for that. Some people miss things, new people join, etc. It's way easier and simpler for you to just move on than it is to whine on every personal repost you've seen.
I was on Reddit for 10+ years and never saw this.
I also have never seen this, was on Reddit for 10 years as well
Was on Reddit for a very long time and never saw this. I'm glad it's here.
So? Go back there and enjoy the stream of reposts? No rocket physics here, chief...
Such a legend! Every time I see this post I'm stunned by the impact she made
Also worth remembering: The Apollo guidance computer had less compute power than a USB charger. That thing sent us to the moon. https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a30916315/usb-c-charger-apollo-11-computer/
The article got Moore's Law wrong. It states that areal density doubles about every 18 months (as I remember it) which tl;dr approximates "more compute power" indirectly. Also it's not true any more but again that's no big deal.
Money and pride. Back then America had something to prove, money was no object. Now it's all about how much it's going to cost.
Start with "Why should we go back?"
The fact is there's really not a reason. We've been there, done that. The cost to send people to the moon is astronomical (lol) but the value to civilization is minimal at this point.
Honestly, NASA spending more time exploring Mars has been more beneficial.. Just wish we found something more up there, but hopefully in time.
I wish we could go to the moon again too, I just don't see a purpose, and that's kind of why we did that, and stopped.
The code:
Undisputed GOAT.
Sensible shoes.
Jesus. I think all the code I've written in the last decade could fit in two of those binders lol
That's kind of a good thing.
It becomes way easier to accomplish things when we can encapsulate what came before.
I got a box to display right in css today. So I'm basically the same
Just like my ex. Her hand also sent all humanity to the Moon.
Isn't this Jack Black's mom?
That was Judith Love Cohen.
Absolute deity
The fact that this has been on the front page for a day tells me that lemmy is just a shittier version of reddit.
Why didn't she write in on a computer?
Because she was writing it for a computer. It then had to be hand-woven into core rope memory for the computer to read.
And the horde of people they hired to weave the copper mesh should themselves be hailed as heroes. Some enthusiasts actually got a guidance unit back up after more than 50 years and it was perfectly capable of still preforming it's intended mission. As long as they give it the inputs it needs the machines left work about as well as they did originally.
Man, just looked into that. Kilobytes per cubic foot feels like such a weird unit these days.
How much mb is this?
#burn baby burn
Love what they snuck in as comments too
Margaret is a legend.
Smurfette, merged wth Brainy Smurf.
What programming language did she use?
Predominantly in assembly language. There is a GiHub repository of part of the code here
AGC was the name, it's assembly. So just a step up above bare machine code, and specific to the Apollo Guidance Computer.
The code is on GitHub. The launch program is named BURN_BABY_BURN--MASTER_IGNITION_ROUTINE.agc
...im sorry but what does a historical anecdote about Czechoslovakia have to do with this post?
I think they want to put this into historical context, like when people point to the fact, that the University of Oxford was founded more than 400 years before the Aztec Empire.
She didn’t write all of that, she had a team of programmers working under her
She was the first software engineer who was hired for the project and did write a good chunk of the code. She was more than someone who simply delegates and leads. Hell, she is the one who coined the term software engineer. She played a hell of a role in the history of software development. Let's not try to diminish that.
He isn't trying to diminish but these misleading exaggerated titles are pretty annoying and confusing at times.
Similar to what happened with the first image of a black hole. The whole thing was somehow attributed to one lady in the press. Turns out, it was a whole team of scientists working together to achieve that.
The problem isn't that the whole thing was attributed to one lady. The problem was how quickly people were to discredit her and minimize her role, something that was guaranteed to never be a problem if she were a man.
Funny how the credibility of male scientists and engineers are never questioned in posts like these, and yet becomes a hot topic when that person happens to be a woman.
Et al of the world, assemble!
Yeah people come on this is like attributing all the code for open ai to the PM
No it isn't, unless you think PMs are programmers. She was the lead developer and created the foundation for the software, then drove the project home. She wasn't a non-technical person writing requirements for engineers to work on.
I wouldn't have minded working under her
Yeah, i bet she was a pretty good boss. Good mission, too.
To be fair though, i don’t think she took sole credit nor did the blackhole researcher. Others in the media, etc. did that
Also the code is much shorter than that, the pile in this picture is just everything they had laying around at that time, so maybe different revisions or just copies. The code they used is like 1-2 of those in length.
I'd like to work under her.